2012 London Summer Olympics

[ Check Out Stunning Pictures from the Opening Ceremony ]

Italians ruled at the Royal Artillery Barracks with Niccolo Campriani winning the men's 50m rifle 3-positions gold with an Olympic record to boot, at the London Games.

The man, who had given his compatriot from Romania, Alin Moldoveanu, a dogged fight before settling for silver in 10m air rifle five days back, was a clear winner with a six-point lead over South Korean Kim Jong-Hyun. The engineering student fired a combined Games best of 1278.5, to leave favorite, Matthew Emmons from the United States, heartbroken.

Going into the final, Campriani (1180) was enjoying an eight-point lead -- again an Olympic record -- and was never under threat of conceding the lead. But the real battle was taking place for silver, where Emmons was slugging it out with Jong-Hyun, trying to erase the distressing memories from Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).

The American was comfortably placed for notching up the second spot with a 1.6-point cushion and with just one round to go. But Emmons' stocks plummeted when he came up with the shot of the final, a 7.6, thus handing the silver to the South Korean on a platter, whose final shot fetched him 10.4.

Emmons finished with a bronze, just 0.3 ahead of France's Cyril Graff.

At the Athens Games, Emmons looked good for a grand double, but failed to add to his 50m rifle prone gold, blowing his chances on the final shot in 50m rifle 3-position. Four years later, at Beijing, his trigger finger slipped and he met with the same fate.

The cancer survivor said he was simply happy to be back on the podium. He was quoted as saying in the media that, "I thought my Olympic medal-winning days were over … I would have liked better but I am happy with bronze."

Former Olympic champion in trap, Michael Diamond from Australia, shot a perfect 125 in qualification to erase the Olympic record he shared with Russia's Alexey Alipov by one point, but he floundered in the finals to finish a dismal fourth.

A dismal 20 out of a maximum possible 25 in the final saw Diamond lose the edge. Croatia's Giovanni Cernogoraz clinched gold following a shoot-off with Italy's Massimo Fabbrizi, after both men finished tied on 146.

Kuwait's Fehaid Aldeehani bagged the bronze, beating Diamond in another shoot-off after they were tied on 145.

Results:

Men's 50m rifle 3-pos:

1. Niccolo Campriani (ITA) 1278.5; 2. Kim Jonghyun (KOR) 1272.5; 3. Matthew Emmons (USA) 1271.3.

Men's trap:

1. Giovanni Cernogoraz (CRO) 146; 2. Massimo Fabbrizi (ITA) 146; 3. Fehaid Aldeehani (KUW) 145; 4. Michael Diamond (AUS) 145.

 

 

Gold For Italian Campriani in Rifle; Heartbreak For USA's Emmons